Poolpaw's First Battle
by carifoo2001
Summary: Second CookieClan challenge, but it's actually labelled as my third because my real second one is harder to write. The challenge is Battle Scars. It's about a young WindClan apprentice named Poolpaw.


**'Nother challenge. Had to be very careful not to go over the 800 word limit.**

"Let's go, Poolpaw," Briarfrost, Poolpaw's mentor, mewed. It was the WindClan apprentice's first battle, against RiverClan. The fish-faces were caught in WindClan territory, so Acornstar decided to show them what happens to trespassers.

Poolpaw was very nervous. What if she or another cat got hurt? What if someone, including a RiverClan cat, died?

The clan had split into groups, and they were going to ambush the camp. Her group was the one to go in first. Poolpaw was the only apprentice in her group, which included Briarfrost, Runningheart, Duststripe, and Foxfoot. Duststripe was going to go first, to see if everyone was asleep. If he got in trouble, or he came back and said it was all clear, they would attack. The other groups would come in as well, a minute after them.

The moonlight shined on the grass, making it look almost white, like her paws. The moon was almost full; it'd be full in just a few nights.

The five got to the camp pretty fast. Poolpaw, Briarfrost, Runningheart and Foxfoot waited outside camp. A little while later, they heard a warning yowl, and immediately they raced into the camp. A silver cat was fighting Duststripe.

Cats started coming out of the dens. When they saw the WindClan cats, they started to attack.

More WindClan cats flooded the RiverClan camp before Poolpaw could think.

A body smashed into her side, knocking her over. She whirled around, her blue eyes coming in contact with a RiverClan tom's amber ones. She snarled and pushed him off of her, earning a grunt from the unnamed tom.

The tom looked like a young warrior, almost twice as big as she was. He was a grey tabby, a bit like hers but shinier, probably because he was WindClan. He bared his teeth and launched himself at her again. She used the skills Briarfrost had taught her and sidestepped, batting him with her paw as he sped by.

He growled and turned around, facing her. He looked pretty scary, especially his eyes. She didn't know what to do as he came toward her again.

He slashed at her with unsheathed claws, looking like he was just trying to scare her off. It didn't work. She hissed and ran around in a semicircle as fast as she could to his back, and jumped as high as she could to get on top of it.

Sadly, he realized what she was doing and got out of the way. She fell on the ground, and her paw exploded with pain. She managed to get up, though, and looked at the tom again.

He looked a bit tired, and he had a small cut on his face where she'd managed to nick him. He was trying to catch his breath.

She took her chance and used her small size to slide underneath him, swiping at his belly. He hissed in pain and kicked her, moving out of the way.

She managed to get up in spite of her paw which was hurting like crazy, and waited for him to attack. He did, lunging at her again. _He's still only using his size. Doesn't he have any other skills? _She swiped at his paws as he came forward, and he fell. She did manage to jump on top of him this time, digging her claws into his back. He yowled in pain, thrashing to get her off. It was harder to get her off because he was lying down and she was too heavy for him to get up with her on his back.

He finally managed to fling her off, and she hissed with pain as she landed on her already hurt paw. A few other places started to hurt as well. She finally decided that enough was enough and she started running out of camp. She glanced back to see the tom glaring at her. He was pretty badly hurt, much to her satisfaction.

0o0o0

As her brother Wetpaw cleaned and bandaged her wounds with various herbs and cobwebs, she smiled, proud of herself. The tom would surely have some scars, all because of her, a young apprentice!

Her mentor, Briarfrost, came by the medicine den to see her. "Congratulations on your first battle, Poolpaw. You did pretty well for your first." Her mentor smiled at her before leaving Poolpaw to her own thoughts about the next battles to come.


End file.
